The Karnataka High Court has ordered the release of a 19-year-old boy — sent to prison under judicial custody on the charges of raping a girl, also 19, on the false promise of marriage — after the girl appeared before the court and said that their physical relationship was consensual and they were eager to marry.

‘Deeply attached’

“The boy and the girl, asserting in unequivocal terms that they were, and continue to remain, deeply attached to one another, are willing to solemnise their relationship in marriage,” the court noted in its interim order while staying the criminal proceedings initiated against the boy and his parents on the complaint lodged by the girl, influenced by her family members.

“Prima facie, no overt act suggestive of force, coercion, compulsion, or sexual assault is attributable to the boy and the material presently placed before this Court would, at least at this stage, indicate nothing more than a consensual relationship between two individuals who have both attained the age of majority,” noted Justice M. Nagaprasanna in his June 23 order.

“The circumstance that has brought the boy to incarceration is not one born out of violence, coercion, or predation, but one that emerges from the tender and often turbulent realm of youthful affection,” the court noted while pointing out that “what began as a bond of mutual affection between two young adults has, unfortunately, spiralled into criminal proceedings, drawing not merely the boy but even members of his family into the vortex of criminal prosecution”.

Familial approval

Criminal law, grave and solemn in its operation, “cannot be permitted to overshadow every relationship that fails to conform to familial approval or societal comfort”, the court said. It stated that law must undoubtedly protect the vulnerable, but it must “equally guard against being invoked as an instrument to criminalise consensual affection between consenting adults”.

Moreover, the court said that “a young boy of 19 years confined within prison walls faces dangers far greater than those that await him outside”. On the question of their desire to marry each other, the court said that whether such a marriage can legally be allowed now, given the age and related legal issues, would be decided later.